The present invention relates to methods and apparatus to electronically identify a page.
Various devices have been used to identify a piece of paper. The simplest way is to put an identifier on the paper. This identifier may be a name for the paper, such as an inventory form. If one has a stack of paper, then one can put a unique number on each to identify them. This can be done easily. However, if one cannot do it manually and has to or wants to identify them electronically, the process becomes more complicated.
One approach is to scan in each piece of paper. Then, the identifier on each piece of paper will be electronically stored and interpreted, typically by a pattern recognition algorithm. Another approach is to put a different barcode on each piece of paper. The barcode is read in to identify each piece from the next. Both approaches require the additional step of either scanning or reading in the identifier. Moreover, both approaches require the additional expense of having some type of scanning mechanism.
If one does not have a scanner, but one has a digitized board, then one can write on a piece of paper sitting on the digitized board. The writing is digitized and stored. In this situation, each piece of paper may be identified by writing an identifier on the paper. The identifier will be captured by the digitizer and stored with other handwriting information. This approach works if the user remembers to put down an identifier before writing information on each sheet of paper. However, if the user has been writing on a piece of paper sitting on the board, and then picks up another piece of paper, but forgets to write down a different identifier, the user's information in the two pieces of paper may be mixed up.
It should be apparent from the foregoing that there is still a need for a method and an apparatus to automatically and electronically identify a piece of paper from another piece of paper.